- There a bit of evidence that the Republican caucus has been drinking a lot on the job. Not only does this report come from Rep. Alan Grayson whom we might discount, but also from Politico reporter Ginger Gibson: I’m not over exaggerating when I say I can smell the booze wafting from members as they walk off the floor.
- Via Krugman, we learn that MovedOn has done some polling. The current Republican majority in the House is 232 to 200. That means 17 seats have to flip to evict Mr Boehner from the Speakership. So MovedOn had Public Policy Polling look at 24 House seats. Would voters prefer a generic Democrat to the incumbent in those seats?
Well, in 17 of the 24 polled seats, a majority said, yes, they would prefer a Democrat. When told that those Republican House members had supported the government shutdown, another four districts swing to the generic Democrat. Only 3 of the 24 districts polled would support the Republican incumbent over a generic Democrat.
Please share widely!
I would never have posted what Alan Grayson or Ginger Gibson said or tweeted. Why? Grayson won’t name any names, so he is either a smear merchant or a coward, and Ginger said she wasn’t close enuff to identify the source. I guess it is too difficult to look into someone’s eyes for strike a 30 second conversation with the iPhone video rolling, to determine if they have tipped the bottle too much. This reminds me when people accused Tea Party protestors of spitting on congressman, but no video to prove it.
On polling. do we want poll-driven leaders or principled leaders? I prefer the latter. I love the statement in the poll “Republicans caused the shutdown”. As Rand Paul said yesterday, Republicans have passed 7-8 clean CR’s to fund government, and Harry Reid refuses to let the Senate vote on these CR’s. So one could say Democrats refuse to compromise and refuse to keep govt open.
Harry Reid said the ultimate goal is single payer h/c. How would the poll results be if that was inserted? Appears that’s the strategy Republicans are taking recently. Prevent Obamacare from ruining the private insurance companies b/c once that happens, single payer is next.
Why this shutdown is different than 95′. Clinton eventually submitted a budget, scored by CBO, that balanced the budget in 7 years. Once he did that, Newt and Dole still were not satisfied even though their demand was met.
“Republicans have passed 7-8 clean CR’s to fund government”
That’s just a flat-out lie — and I think you know it.
Tom, Republicans in the House have passed CR’s to fund the VA, passed to fund NIH. Isn’t this a better way. to have up and down votes on specific funding bills, rather than putting them all in one bucket, where the lard is hidden?
Why does Harry and Barry love Obamacare more than kids with cancer and veterans who fought for you and me and everyone else. Hell with them right?
to hijackers for all the buildings they don’t fly airplanes into.
What you are describing is a hostage negotiation. I have all the government shut down, oh now I will give you the VA, NIH, but I will keep the rest of the hostages until I get my own way. ACA is law, validated by the Supreme Court as constitutional, and yet the Republicans have voted over 430 times and now taken the government hostage to try to roll this back just as it starts to roll out. You cannot run a government that way..
You are describing cafeteria budgeting. Like any institution the government must have a comprehensive budget to include all revenues and outlays for the ensuing fiscal year.
Video was released of this incident (see about 1:20-1:40, where the Congressman clearly gets spit on by a ranting protester, confronts him and then wipes spit of his face):
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/28/congressman-spit-on-by-te_n_516300.html
How does one spit while yelling at the same time?
Don’t be dense.
It’s obvious from the video that the Congressman immediately confronts the “gentleman” in the white hat for spitting on him (yes, at the same time as he’s yelling at him he spits on him). At 1:45 in the video, the Congressman wipes off his face in disgust.
Your contention is that the Congressman is attempting to wipe simply yelled words off his face?
No way the guy spit on him as you made it sound.
Any other videos?
What do the Democrats “win” if a clean CR is passed? Can you tell me that? Yes, they make the Republicans look bad if their bullying is shown to fail, but what would the Democrats actually win in terms of actual budget concessions? Absolutely nothing! In fact the clean CR would leave the hated sequester in place, which could be counted as a loss for the Democrats.
Republicans are asking for concessions in return for absolutely nothing. This is extortion pure and simple. Anyone who denies this is either a liar or is living in the land of Republican delusion.
They could spin it as Republicans go to the brink on the economy, obstruct Obamacare, irrational, they are the adult party, etc.
Now I try to call it as I see it. Republicans have come off of defunding Obamacare to delaying it for one year, as it has for Big Business. If the employer mandate is waived, why not the individual. This is about fairness. Why does Exxon-Mobile ger a waiver, but I don’t? And Cruz is right, why does Congress get an exemption, but I don’t if my employer contributes to my health insurance but i still end up on the exchanges? That fair to you?
So I see Cruz Missile and Rand Paul asking for compromise, to negotiate, and from I see, protect the liabilities of Obamacare from most of the people, that Big Business and Congress are inoculated from, at least as of this year. Just one freakin year. All this suffering really worth it? You prefer default over compromise? Really?
Fund the VA and cancer research and get together and work it out. At least offer something Democrats (meaning Reid and Obama).
Let’s pretend, for a moment, that the GOP is negotiating in good faith and will honor any deal that is made.
So, we deal.
And then, how you do feel about the precedent of using the shutdown as a tactic to debate existing, passed, and signed laws?
When we are $17 trillion in debt, have obligations of $70 trillion and counting, I much prefer spending bills to be passed in a piece-meal kind of way. At the very minimum, the President (Dem or Rep) should talk with the opposition leader, and compromise here.
I don’t know why Dems don’t extract something like a minimum wage hike for a 1 year delay. Think about all the workers in Texas who will get a pay raise…..
it really doesn’t bother me that you disagree with me. But it does bug me that I have to wonder whether you’re missing my point, genuinely going in a different direction, or just messing around to mess around.
Sorry but I think I have to stop talking to you now. The effort to parse your replies isn’t worth the time.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Wi_8qeH7gxI
Typical troll tactic: get us to waste our time chasing links instead of bothering to actually respond yourself.
Besides which, Rand Paul is a total crackpot. None of his explanations for anything make much sense unless you are living in alternate reality. In any case, I thought you disapproved of “poll-driven” leaders. Didn’t Paul just get caught criticizing the Democrats for not “poll testing” the no negotiation tactic? Hmmm.
BTW, you do realize that by defending the Republicans on this you are pretty much blowing up your pretense of being “independent”?
Say 2002 and Bush tax cuts taking effect, but the W. Adm. only allows the tax rates to drop for the top 1% and the rest of the workers get their savings in 2003. If the Dems said no, delay the tax cut for the 1% until 2003, just like the rest of the country and refuse to appropriate spending until such, I would say hell yes, make it fair for everyone.
That’s the argument that I find compelling by Rand Paul and Ted Cruz. It’s the same sort of case being made against Obamacare.
I also like the idea of passing several CR’s so we don’t get the “Bridge to Nowhere” finding. I find this approach much healthier, given the debt we have. Paul said Congress use to pass budgets like this in the past, and I believe we should get back to this practice.
Democrats need to negotiate, that is not a crackpot request, IMO. Even Will Brownsberger says we can’t default and must engage. You want to engage or default, Kevin?
period. How many times must it be said.
I would be willing to bet if the table was reversed and it was Democrats saying, build a “Rifle and Handgun Registry” or else, you would be screaming bloody murder even though the Registry is just a law, not a constitutional anything.
Put the Clean CR bill on the floor for a vote and prove their are not enough votes.
This is why it is utterly useless arguing with DFW. It is never ever a debate. It is always an exchange of sound bites.
Only written.
So it doesn’t even make good entertainment.
What do the Democrats get out of a clean CR?
Please answer instead of trying to evade the question.
It’s absurd to discuss sourcing with someone like our Republican from Waltham whose links disprove his points as often as they prove them.
No vote being taken, no negotiating going on.
Yeah, they were drinking.
Talking about spreading rumors and innuendo. Guess it’s okay when the target of those rumors and innuendos are Republicans. This is the height of double standards.
I believe they probably were drinking, but then again, I have no issue with this kind of commentary. One way or the other guys, you can’t have it both ways.
A tweet from a professional journalist is not a rumor.
Now you are joking. Journalists don’t start rumors by innuendo? Please.
Is she too stupid? She can’t figure out who has had too much to drink? Not even a list of possibilities?
… and too risky to go up and ask them.
WAY too risky to get it wrong too.
So I suppose she could have said nothing, but considering the gravity of the situation, I think it was worth noting.
You simply walk up with a iPhone and ask 2 quick questions, if one or two are shit-faced, it’s real easy to see. This is coward journalism, surprised you are fine with it. Grayson said it was the usual suspects, do who are they? Do we wait for one of them to crash their car like Kennedy did with his Mustang? Oh wait, he was on medicine, I forgot.
You independents sure are touchy about Republicans.
Grayson blames shutdown on GOP literally drinking on the job
“Many of them seem loaded,” the liberal congressman says, charging his GOP colleagues smelled like alcohol
Am I really jumping to conclusions? This smear by Grayson and “legitimate journalist” is like those who pushed the birther idea.
You robbed from your children’s college funds to make this comment, socialworker.
Or perhaps not.
I don’t know. I’m just asking questions.
“over” exaggerating is redundant.
The Parable of the Angry Pig and the Angry Farmer
A pig is in its pen, wallowing in its own refuse and filth, kicking its shit all over the wall of the adjacent barn to see what sticks. Instead of putting the pig throwing tantrums down and converting this utterly useless animal to delicious bacon, the angry farmer, who knows better, climbs into the pen, into the dirt and shit, and tries to wrestle the pig and calm it down. The moral of the story: Come on folks, come on editors, surely we can all be smarter than the farmer?
n/t